More Asperger books

I got it wrong again. I mistakenly thought you so called normal people might have an interest in Asperger fiction. Well, I daresay some of you do. But I had seriously underestimated the needs of Aspies. No, I hadn’t. I had failed to grasp that many Aspies haven’t yet found the books I’ve found. So the blog last week got an enormous number of hits, and all from one place; an Asperger forum in Sweden, of all places. Hej, hej.

The desperation for suitable books is interesting. Almost even more interesting is the fact that these prospective readers don’t baulk at the idea of reading in English, if that’s what it takes. Beat that, you neurotypical monolinguals. (Otherwise known as normal people.)

So I searched the bookshelves for things overlooked or forgotten, and came up with a few more books. Like the last lot, not all are openly Aspie, but the characters fit in really well with Aspie minds.

First of all, how could I forget Roman Mystery no. 12? The Charioteer of Delphi by Caroline Lawrence. Caroline openly says that her character Scopas is autistic. He was very likeable, and well done Caroline for introducing him into the series.

Then comes a French book by someone called Kochka. The title is The Boy Who Ate Stars, and it’s very good. It’s a short and easy read.

My own take on Geraldine McCaughrean’s The White Darkness is Aspie or “different loner”, and I think it fits the bill well. Needless to say this is one of the books that has turned into a running family joke, as I keep suggesting it and Daughter keeps refusing to read it.

Finally, confession time, with a book I didn’t finish, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. This is an Alex Rider trying to be Harry Potter type story, about the Greek Gods living in New York. It seems that Rick has a son who has ADHD and he wrote it for him, which makes perfect sense. There are now three Percy Jackson books, and more on the way I believe.

My last Aspie blog nearly had Kate Thompson’s The Last of the High Kings in it. There is a very Aspie character in the book, but she turns out to be a fairy, which possibly explains her behaviour. On the other hand, it could be that all Aspies actually are fairies. Or Greek half gods. So maybe read it anyway.

10 responses to “More Asperger books”

Thanks for remembering Scopas from ‘The Charioteer of Delphi’! I have been fascinated by autism and psychology since I first read Oliver Sacks’ books 20 years ago. I wish I had written ‘Curious Incident’, one of the best books ever. Finally, Temple Grandin’s book Animals in Translation (ISBN 0747566682) was a major inspiration for Scopas…

Thank you for this hilarious and fabulous blog. Don’t forget the entire Sherlock Holmes collection. Holmes was said to be based on a person Arthur Conan Doyle actually knew and was profoundly impressed by: the acquaintance resulted in the portrait of Holmes’s incomparable expertise in a narrow field of knowledge, his seeming lack of emotional response to situations etc etc… Holmes is the ultimate Aspie, if you ask me, and pre-dates Asperger’s idenitfication of the syndrome by about half a century!

Just been reading your site for the first time, and enjoying it very much.
Re Aspergers/autism books, have you read ‘Speed of Darkness’, by Elizabeth Moon? I thought it was amazing, but then I’m a neurotypical monolingual, so not sure if it fits your criteria.

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